Amazon launches ‘Instant Pickup Points’ in US

Amazon is rolling out ‘instant pickup points’ across the US where shoppers can collect items within two minutes of ordering.

The new service will enable Prime and Prime Student users to order ‘essentials’ from a curated list of fast-selling items including drinks, snacks, and phone chargers.

The e-commerce giant has launched the pickup points across five college campuses: the University of California at Berkeley, Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio and College Park, Maryland.

The online retailer already operates 22 manned locations on or near University campuses in the US. These include AmazonFresh stores and AmazonBooks.

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If the trial is successful they aim to expand to more sites, in a bid to tackle bricks-and-mortar grocery stores.

The service allows shoppers to use the Amazon app to order from a list of several hundred fast-selling items.

Amazon employees at the pickup points will then process the order, and it can be collected from a self-service locker with two minutes

"I want to buy a can of coke because I’m thirsty," said Ripley MacDonald, Amazon's director of student programs. "There’s no chance I’m going to order that on Amazon.com and wait however long it’s going to take for that to ship to me."

"I can provide that kind of service here," he said of the new service.

In June, Amazon announced they were going to acquire the grocery chain Whole Foods for US$13.7bn